MT. HEALTHY, Ohio (WXIX) – The owner of Animal House: Pet Store in Mt. Healthy believes someone is using AI to try scamming his customers.
Owner Michael Raleigh has used Facebook as part of his business for years. He believes some of the comments in the Facebook posts are part of a scam.
“It’s disheartening people would try to scam people out of such a big decision like buying a puppy,” Raleigh said.
Raleigh said their posts have received unusual comments for the past eight months. Most are responding to people who have already commented on a post, replying with websites and links to dogs for sale.
“I think they are asking for deposits in advance, things like that,” Raleigh said.
Raleigh showed one post on their Facebook with a photo of Cavapoo puppies. Someone replied, “So cute,” to the post. He said an account responded immediately to the comment with a link to similar puppies.
“It pops up immediately and as soon as we block it another pops up under a different name,” Raleigh said.
FOX19 NOW Tech Expert Dave Hatter says the comments are bad business, even if it’s legitimate and not a scam.
“Even if it’s not a scam in the way I would define a traditional scam, like you click a link and install some kind of malware, or steal your credentials or credit card or something, the behavior is scammy at best and really unethical,” Hatter said.
Raleigh says he’s never clicked the links, but he blocks them immediately.
“We don’t want to be confused with scammers,” Raleigh said. “You can physically walk in our store, never put down a deposit on a pet unless you’re physically standing in front of it.”
He still wants his customers to be able to interact with Animal House’s Facebook account
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